Starbucks checks allegation of anti-gay bias on LI

Starbucks Coffee Co. executives in Seattle are promising an investigation into a controversy that began Sunday and centered on the alleged firing or alleged forced resignation of a gay employee at a store in Centereach. 

Word of the incident spread beyond the store when a Wordpress blogger described how, as a customer at the Centereach Starbucks, she overheard a Starbucks employee being rebuked –- and forced to quit – by his boss because he is gay. The blogger added that she is gay.

"It’s been less than 30 hours since we posted about the incident at Starbucks," the blogger wrote on Tuesday. "The post has over 200 comments, has received over 15,000 views. It’s been Tweeted, Facebooked, and blogged at least 6 degrees of stranger-dom," the blogger said. "People who aren’t even friends of friends are finding links on their Facebooks and Twitters and reaching out."

Starbucks responded with its official Twitter account. “We are investigating and will be as transparent as we legally can be,” one Starbucks Tweet said. Another said, “We have have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind.” (For an update, click here.)

The blogger also tweeted her complaint, which took the form of an open letter to the Starbucks Coffee Co.

"Yesterday when I walked into your Centereach, Long Island location, I saw one of the most brazen and unapologetic displays of homophobia I have ever witnessed in my entire life,” the blogger wrote.

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